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Immortality Becoming a Reality, Google Exec Says

by Brandon Dimmel on June, 19 2013 at 08:06AM EDT

Google's engineering director thinks new developments in technology are bringing us closer to a world where human immortality will become a reality. Ray Kurzweil made that bold statement at the recent Global Future 2045 Congress in New York City.

The Global Future 2045 Congress each year brings together the world's top scientists. The topics of discussion: important advancements in biotechnology research and human life expectancy.

Russian Multimillionaire Seeks Immortality

The event is held at New York's Alice Tully Hall and is funded primarily by Dmitry Itskov, a 32-year-old Russian Internet entrepreneur.

Itskov -- who is a multimillionaire -- takes his health very seriously. He reportedly eats no meat, and carefully avoids consuming coffee, alcohol, and even cold water. Itskov spends part of his fortune funding the 2045 Initiative, which is dedicated to achieving human immortality in the next thirty years. (Source: huffingtonpost.com)

One of this year's most anticipated speakers was Google engineering director Ray Kurzweil, who has written extensively on 'futurology'.

Medical Research About to "Go Into High Gear"

"The life expectancy was 20 1,000 years ago ... We doubled it in 200 years ... This will go into high gear within 10 and 20 years from now, probably less than 15 we will be reaching that tipping point where we add more time than has gone by because of scientific progress," Kurzweil noted. (Source: cnbc.com)

"There's already fantastic therapies to overcome heart disease, cancer and every other neurological disease based on this idea of reprogramming the software."

Looking forward, Kurzweil says significant developments could be accomplished through the use of advanced 3D bioprinters capable of recreating human tissue. Controversial stem cell research could also be used to take this concept forward.

"These are all examples of treating biology as software," Kurzweil said. "These technologies will be ... 1,000 times more powerful by the end of the decade. And a million times more powerful in 20 years."

Itskov is certainly a believer. When asked about his confidence in humans attaining immortality by 2045 he replied, "I am 100 per cent certain."